PORTLAND, Ore. – With runs of 12 and 14 points in a row, the George Fox University Bruins built up a 24-point first-half lead, then fought off a valiant comeback attempt in the second half to defeat the Portland Bible College Wildcats 79-71 in the first-ever meeting between the two schools Monday night here at the City Christian High School Gym.

George Fox scored the first five points of the game on a jumper by Mike Taylor and three-pointer by A.J. Grant before Garrett Powless hit a three to put the Wildcats on the board.  Anthony Sanchez added a three for the Bruins to make it 8-3, but the Wildcats responded with a 6-0 run, taking their only lead of the game at 9-8 on a goal from the left corner by Elty McMillan at the 15:50 mark.

The Bruin regained the lead on a running baseline jumper from Taylor, igniting a 12-0 run that made it 20-9 with 11:36 to go in the half.  Grant and Sanchez hit threes and Sean Atkins added four points on two free throws and a backdoor layup in the rally. 

Ahead 23-14 midway through the half, the Bruins took off on another big run, scoring 14 in a row to extend the lead to 37-14 with five minutes left.  Taylor had six points and Grant five to fuel the run.  Spencer Bolte's layup at 3:30 left gave the Bruins their largest lead of 39-15 before the Wildcats closed with an 8-4 run, cutting the halftime margin to 43-23.

George Fox shot .593 (16-27) in the first half while holding the hosts to a .250 mark (7-28).  Five of PBC's goals were three-pointers.  Grant had 11 points and Taylor 10 to lead the Bruins, while McMillan led the Wildcats with eight.

The Wildcats scored the first five points of the second half on a three by McMillan and two freebies by Doug Noteboom, but the Bruins got a trey by Sanchez and a layup by Taylor to push the lead back to 20 at 48-28.  The Wildcats' Tim Mahan then caught fire, scoring eight straight to bring the Wildcats within 12 at 48-36 with 15 minutes to go.

Mahan added 10 more points over the next seven minutes as the Wildcats out-scored the Bruins 19-13 to make it a six-point game at 61-55 with 8:33 to play.  A three-pointer and a fast-break layup by Taylor gave the Bruins some breathing room at 66-55 with 6:51 left, and the lead was 77-64 with 1:21 left after two Taylor free throws before the Wildcats mounted one last try.

Mahan hit a three (his 23rd point of the half), Noteboom hit two free throws, and Jacob Peters made a steal and layup to narrow the gap to 77-71 with 30 seconds left.  Peters made another steal moments later but missed a layup, and Ethan Brown snared the rebound and sank two clinching free throws for the Bruins with 18 seconds to go.

Taylor finished with 23 points to lead the Bruins, Grant scored 18 with four three-pointers, and Sanchez added 17 with five threes.  Taylor and Sanchez had nine rebounds apiece as the Bruins held a 37-25 advantage on the glass.  Taylor also had five assists.  The Bruins wound up with a .527 (29-55) shooting percentage, going 11-27 on threes, and hit 10-15 from the line.

Mahan scored a game-high 26 points, Juston Coleman added 15, and McMillan and Noteboom had 11 each.  Peters, Noteboom, and Vicente Cruz had five rebounds apiece, and Noteboom handed out six assists.  The Wildcats shot .552 (16-29) in the second half to get back in the game and finished with a .404 mark (23-57), including 11-32 from long range, and 14-20 from the stripe. 

NEXT: George Fox (3-6) heads for San Antonio, Texas, next week to participate in the D-III National Invitational Tournament on Dec. 20-21.  The Bruins will take on tourney host Trinity University Tuesday and Buena Vista University from Iowa on Wednesday … Portland Bible (2-9),which lost its seventh in a row, is off until Dec. 30,when the Wildcats will host Lewis-Clark State College at 7:00 p.m.